Anyone here ever grow tobacco?
I just bought a hundred tobacco seeds of the Havana strain. I've never grown any before. I wonder if it is just like tomato plants etc. where you start the seed in a foam cup full of potting soil and then transplant it to the ground when a few inches high.
Please don't tell me it's illegal. I don't think it is but if it is I just don't care. Where I live everybody just lives and lets live.
Also about the curing, do you just put if out in the sun for drying? I'm growing it to smoke in a pipe. Thanks for any comments.
Please don't tell me it's illegal. I don't think it is but if it is I just don't care. Where I live everybody just lives and lets live.
Also about the curing, do you just put if out in the sun for drying? I'm growing it to smoke in a pipe. Thanks for any comments.
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No but i always wanted to. Before i quit using it that is. Grow some for me. 0 -
I could help you grow pot but I've never done tobacco 0 -
If you can grow that cuban seed, I'll buy.
quote:"WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING BADGES"0 -
Better study up on it before you get envolved. Tabacco is raised not by just planting a seed and then waiting for it to grow up. Many steps envolved in raising the stuff.. First you need a seed bed to start the plants, after they are thriving about 5 inches long, you move them to a special prepared ground and transplant them, after they grow to about 3 ft tall, you then must sucker them (cut out the growth at the bottom of the leaves, than after it reaches 5 to 6 feet tall you must de flower it, after it is completely matured you must then cut it and spike it and hang it in a bard with a smoke fire with something added to the smoke ( sometimes brown sugar) but not necessary to cure the tobacco which takes a couple months,
Then you have to strip it, then you stack it in bales to cure some more. From start to finish is about a years job. Then you can shred it, roll it , or twist it into chewing twists.0 -
I don't have any experience with that type of tobacco, but I don't see why it would be a lot different.
If you were going to grow a crop of tobacco, you would put the seed into a seed bed to get them started, but on a small scale the plant cups should work fine. I don't know if a foam cup would have the right drainage. The little plant cups don't cost much, I'd just get some of them. When it gets about the size you would transplant a tomato, just transplant it. Don't forget the fertilizer.
My next door neighbor used to use a tobacco planter to plant his tomato plants. I think you are on the right track to treat them a lot like a tomato plant.
None of my business, but it seems an awful waste of fine cigar tobacco to smoke it in a pipe. [:)]0 -
Classic, most of what you are talking about applies to flue cured tobacco like they grow in North & South Carolina, Virginia, etc. Never heard of curing it with smoke or anything added to the smoke though. Anyway, that's not what he's talking about. At least I don't think it is. He has some Cuban Cigar Seeds. 0 -
JAMES: Get up around Kentucky and check the smoke coming from the tobacco barns, I raised tobacco in Ky for around 9 years , sorriest job a guy could want. We raised some Turkish, and Burley for the cigarette industry, The long cure hanging in a Hot barn with smoke additives produces the best tobacco for the auctions.
Work a tobacco field from sun up to sun down especially the cutting and spikeing work, that tobacco sap is almost impossible to get off your skin, and you walk around smelling like a spittoon..The stripping can be fun as ya set around stripping the leaves off the stalks and bundleing them , sipping on a cold Ice tea and telling jokes. Yep tobacco farming is loads of fun..[^]0 -
here in the buckeye state,we either started them in seed beds or today they do it by hydroponics ie in water with timers and regular feeding of the plants, and of course we set ours out with a tobacco setter or planter,we cure ours by cutting the stalk and spudding ie pushing a sharp metal spear point on a tobacco stick up thru the leaves and then hanging upside down in a barn under roof to cure and dry,the tobacco is then stipped of its leaves to be baled by hand and taken for grading and sold,you will be highly disapointed with the flavor i have a feeling it will be harsh to say the least,good luck! 0 -
Classic, I was raised in cotton and tobacco fields. I'm very familiar with tobacco gum. This young fellow is talking about a whole different subject. He said he has 100 seeds. I don't see how he will have more than 100 plants. No tobacco farming in that. Building tobacco barns would be insane. I don't see why he can't cure 100 plants (will be more like 50 to 75) in the basement, attic, or utility building.
By the way, when I was a kid, we suckered tobacco by hand and you didn't wash the gum off, you had to wait for it to wear off. They don't do that these days. They do it with a chemical spray.0 -
LOKO383 and Classic, If you look on a CAMEL cigarette pack you will see "Turkish & Domestic Blend Cigarettes". What we are used to growing is the "& Domestic". In other words "filler tobacco". What john carr has is the flavorful tobacco they use to make fine Cuban Cigars. I don't think the man wants to start tobacco farming, he's just talking about raising a few plants to enjoy a homemade smoke. I don't see any reason he can't grow a garden sized plot of tobacco, and comes fall, cure his leaves in a heated building or part of his house. We are just trying to make this too hard, and I don't see why it has to be. 0 -
JamesRK - Yes, that's about it. I have about an acre that I could plant but I'll be doing good to get maybe 50 plants in. I got these seeds in Canada where you can go to the tobacco shops and buy those good Cuban Punch Double Coronas all you want. I've smoked a few Cubans when I am in Honduras but they're too strong for me, I generally settle for the mild Honduran variety like Punch London Club. Oh boy I'm starting to crave nicotine, better go get my pipe. 0 -
Didn't mean Honduras, you can get arrested there. Meant El Salvador. 0 -
JAMESRK you are right i failed to mention we raised burley strains,and it is harsh,sorry guys 0 -
don't know nothin about growing tobacco wish i did but iv'e seen alot of the other smokin stuff grow if you ever need help 0 -
Dont want the guy to go into mass production, however tobacco is tobacco and raising it, 1 plant or 1000 plants takes the same procedures just on a smaller scale. Then I bet he wont be happy with the way it tastes..[:0] 0 -
I thought about doing this once and spoke with a fella who had experience.
I remember him cautioning me about the plant spacing, but I don't recall the measurement. They spread out a bunch.0 -
I grew some kentucky Burly once. It didn't do so well in the Ojio valley. 0 -
For several years I grew 5+ acres of burley, around 12 to 15 thousand pound a year (most sold and average of $1.90 a pound and up if it turned out good quality). I paid my way though college growing it. I done most of the work myself as I didn't have any Mexican labor like most tobacco farmers today. I worked many days from daylight to dark.
Yes you can start your tobacco in a cup and transplant in mid-May at 6+ inches tall. Put plenty of fertilizer, keep the weeds out, top the bloom out and keep the suckers cut out. After topping let stand for about 3 weeks then start cutting (6 stalks to a 4 1/2 feet stick) in early to mid-September. Then hang in a shelter on poles about 4 feet apart until early November then strip the leaves off in three grades (trash, reds, and tips) and you are ready to smoke. Without all the additives and flavoring you are in for some strong smoking.0 -
jitrent - Sounds like good advice will do it that way.
turtles11756 - I once did a guy a big favor in a motorcycle related problem he had. In gratitude he gave me six seeds, said to plant them, they were an "exotic" strain of tobacco know as "Thai". When they came up they weren't tobacco at all! I destroyed them all, of course.0 -
quote:Originally posted by john carr
jitrent - Sounds like good advice will do it that way.
turtles11756 - I once did a guy a big favor in a motorcycle related problem he had. In gratitude he gave me six seeds, said to plant them, they were an "exotic" strain of tobacco know as "Thai". When they came up they weren't tobacco at all! I destroyed them all, of course.
Burn them??? [:D]0 -
quote:Originally posted by john carr
I just bought a hundred tobacco seeds of the Havana strain. I've never grown any before. I wonder if it is just like tomato plants etc. where you start the seed in a foam cup full of potting soil and then transplant it to the ground when a few inches high.
Please don't tell me it's illegal. I don't think it is but if it is I just don't care. Where I live everybody just lives and lets live.
Also about the curing, do you just put if out in the sun for drying? I'm growing it to smoke in a pipe. Thanks for any comments.
I grew up on a tobacco farm. You need to sell your seed and buy your tobacco from a retailer. What you are considering is a very complicated process. You are in over your head.
Why not buy a cow and avoid buying milk at the grocery?[;)]0 -
JamesRK - Yes, destroyed by fire. Not all at once, tho. 0 -
Quote: "You need to sell your seed and buy your tobacco from a retailer."
Right. Do you know of a retailer I can order from that sells Cuban tobacco, hmmmmmmmmm???0 -
I heard it's best to "germinate" the seeds first so that a tiny little root starts to form, than place in a styro-foam cup with potting soil, then plant in the ground once the seedling has reaced 6 inches. I've heard that between 2 layers of moist paper towels in the microwave overnight is a good way to germinate. (note) do not power up the microwave, use it as a cool dark place. 0 -
Growing tobacco...................the memories.
Seed bed steaming and transplanting, hoeing l9ong hours out in the sun, suckering, cutting, lathing, hanging, stripping, and finally baling in the tobacco shed cellar.
We last grew tobacco in Chester & Lancaster Counties in 1979.0 -
E-mail Al Gore, he grows tobacco on his farm in Tennessee. I think he invented tobacco. 0 -
Nobody had to pick worms? Dang!
Allen0 -
Most fun I ever had. [:D]0 -
allow me to add my two cents please .Everyone is making too bigof adeal of the whole thing There are basically two different types of tobacco plnts ,the burly or shade cured variety and the flue cured type.Fluecured requires a diffefernt approach to curing The leaves are first harvested as they begin to ripen on the stalk ie begin to turn yellowish green They are then hung in a heated barn to be cured The heat goes thru several stages of varing temps over about a week,reaching a peak of around 200 degrees .
If of good quality the leaves will be a golden yellow color at this point .THey can then be further processed ie shreded etc.The additives and flavorings used usually will turn the color brown as in most cigars.Your ideaof growing in cups is okay .For further info you can log into the state agricultural web sites of somewhere like my home state of north carolina or any adjacent states such as virginia,south carolinaor geoargia formore inf Hope this helps. My family farmed tobacco forover thirty years.0
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